Dan Koster was unpacking some of his more than 2,000 CDs after a move when he noticed something strange. Some of the discs, which he always took good care of, wouldn't play properly. Koster, a Web and graphic designer for Queens University of Charlotte, N.C., took one that was skipping pretty badly and held it up to the light. 'I was kind of shocked to see a constellation of pinpricks, little points where the light was coming through the aluminum layer,' he says. His collection was suffering from 'CD rot,' a gradual deterioration of the data-carrying layer.
It's not known for sure how common the blight is, but it's just one of a number of reasons that optical discs, including DVDs, may be a lot less long-lived than first thought. 'We were all told that CDs were well-nigh indestructible when they were introduced in the mid '80s,' Koster says. 'Companies used that in part to justify the higher price of CDs as well.' He went through his collection and found that 15 percent to 20 percent of the discs, most of which were produced in the '80s, were 'rotted' to some extent. The rotting can be due to poor manufacturing, according to Jerry Hartke, who runs Media Sciences Inc., a Marlborough, Mass., laboratory that tests CDs. The aluminum layer that reflects the light of the player's laser is separated from the CD label by a thin layer of lacquer. If the manufacturer applied the lacquer improperly, air can penetrate to oxidize the aluminum, eating it up much like iron rusts in air.
But in Hartke's view, it's more common that discs are rendered unreadable by poor handling by the owner. 'If people treat these discs rather harshly, or stack them, or allow them to rub against each other, this very fragile protective layer can be disturbed, allowing the atmosphere to interact with that aluminum,' he says. Label side most sensitive, not clear side Part of the problem is that most people believe that it's the clear underside of the CD that is fragile, when in fact it's the side with the label.
Scratches on the underside have to be fairly deep to cause skipping, while scratches on the top can easily penetrate to the aluminum layer. Even the pressure of a pen on the label side can dent the aluminum, rendering the CD unreadable. Koster has taken to copying his CDs on his computer to extend the life of the recordings. Unfortunately, it's not easy to figure out how long those recordable CDs will work. Fred Byers, an information technology specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has looked at writeable CDs on behalf of government agencies, including the Library of Congress, that need to know how long their discs will last. Manufacturers cite lifespans up to 100 years, but without a standardized test, it's very hard to evaluate their claims, Byers says. The worst part is that manufacturers frequently change the materials and manufacturing methods without notifying users.
'When you go to a store and buy a DVD-R, and this goes for CD-R as well, you really don't know what you're getting,' he says. 'If you buy a particular brand of disc, and then get the same disc and brand six months later, it can be very different.' This renders the frequently heard advice to buy name-brand discs for maximum longevity fairly moot, he says. What to watch out for DVDs are a bit tougher than CDs in the sense that the data layer (or layers some discs have two) is sandwiched in the middle of the disc between two layers of plastic.
But this structure causes problems of its own, especially in early DVDs. The glue that holds the layers together can lose its grip, making the disc unreadable at least in parts. Users that bend a DVD to remove it from a hard-gripping case are practically begging for this problem, because flexing the disc puts strain on the glue. Rewriteable CDs and DVDs, as opposed to write-once discs, should not be used for long-term storage because they contain a heat-sensitive layer that decays much faster than the metal layers of other discs. For maximum longevity, discs should be stored vertically and only be handled by the edges.
Lakshya ko har haal me pana hai song free download. Don't stick labels on them, and in the case of write-once CDs, don't write on them with anything but soft water-based or alcohol-based markers. Also, like wine, discs should be stored in a cool, dry place. Koster's friend Mark Irons, of Corvallis, Ore., stored his CD collection in a cabin heated by a wood-burning stove. The temperature would range between 40 degrees and 70 degrees in the space of a few hours. Now, the data layer of some of his CDs looks as if it's being eaten from the outside. Irons is still pretty happy with CD technology, since it beats vinyl LPs and tape for longevity.
Now that he's moved his discs to an apartment with a more stable temperature, he's noticed that the decay has slowed. 'I'm hoping they'll hold out till that next medium gets popular, and everyone gets to buy everything over again,' he says. Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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After more than two decades of behind the scenes collaboration Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland - their debut collaborative album to be released this summer on Tresor Records. The album - made up of 8 sequences, which seamlessly blend the styles of both masters - was recorded at the beginning of 2013 over various studio sessions in Berlin and will be released as a series of three 12's and a CD album. Together with a series of live performances, the record gives common voice to two independent yet mutually supporting musical journeys, achieving a singular expression of club-orientated electronic music and the freedom of organic musical experimentation. Additional Information Artist No Title No Cat.No No Release No Soundcloud URL Round image?
Borderlands 1 Download
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Review To coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Berlin club Tresor, Juan Atkins and Moritz Von Oswald have released a second Borderland album together. It begins in ominous mode, with the title track's brooding bass tones casting a long, dark shadow, but the pair soon find a way to break away from the gloom with the mesmerising chords and heavy rhythm of 'Lightyears' and the wonderfully spacey Detroit techno of 'Riod'. Both 'Odyssey' and 'Merkur' push the tempo back down but keep an emphasis on hypnotic, woozy textures, snappy drums and jazzy tones, while '2600' shows that Van Oswald hasn't lost his ability to craft dub-heavy, dreamy techno.
Ricky Munoz, lead singer of Intocalbe, performs in Juarez, Mexico earlier this month. Intocable, a band popular on both sides of the border, is inspired by Mexican music, country hits and rock bands like Def Leppard. Kainaz Amaria/NPR In some ways, borders that divide countries are concrete and inescapable. The border between Mexico and the U.S. Is very real for the thousands who have died trying to cross it without papers; for those whose families are divided by it; for those living the nightmare of getting caught in the crossfire of a drug trade that seeps in through the borders' darkest hidden crevices.
In other ways, there's something hubristic and almost naive about trying to divide two cultures with a fence. Language, food, music and people will mix no matter how high the fence, and to try and stop it is like trying to stop a tsunami with your hands. The mythology surrounding the border has always been powerful. It's a place where the law takes on visible, tangible expressions: a giant wall, a military presence, a fence.
Yet border towns are always places of legal ambiguity and cultural transgression. NPR recently took a trip alongside the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a visually stunning series called. It was a long drive, during which a lot of music played a key role. Join us for this episode of Alt.Latino as Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep regales us with stories of his borderland adventures and the music he collected en route. His notes and anecdotes about the different songs are included in our playlist below. Selena. Song: Como la Flor.
from 12 Super Exitos Our group included NPR producer Selena Simmons-Duffin, who in accordance with her Midwestern roots pronounces her name seh-LEE-nah. But when she arrived in Texas she could only be she-LAY-nah, which is the way the famous singer of the 1990s pronounced it. This is one of Selena's hits from before her tragic death in 1995, when she was killed just before her 24th birthday by the president of her fan club.
'Yo se que tienes un nuevo amor. Sin embargo, te deseo lo mejor.'
('I know that you have a new love. Nevertheless, I wish you the best.'
Johnny Cash. Song: Cocaine Blues. from At Folsom Prison This song involves a run across the border to Juarez, Mexico. The version to listen to is from Cash's famous recording at Folsom Prison. When he describes getting high, shooting his woman and taking a nap, the prisoners actually cheer.
In fairness, they cheer again when he's caught in Juarez. In the end, the theme is similar to the frustrated love in conjunto music; as in Flaco Jimenez's 'Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio,' the narrator blames the woman for what he does. 'Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds, I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down.
I went right home and I went to bed. I stuck that lovin'.44 beneath my head. Got up next mornin' and I grabbed that gun.
Took a shot of cocaine and away I run. Made a good run, but I run too slow. They overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico.' Marty Robbins. Song: El Paso. from 16 Biggest Hits I can't think of El Paso, or 'the badlands of New Mexico,' without hearing this song in my head, and my colleagues had to hear it several times in the car as we approached El Paso. I've seen this described as the perfectly written song, especially because of the way each verse leads into the next.
Just as in 'Cocaine' and 'Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio,' the narrator is a confused young man who's frustrated by a woman, with tragic results. 'Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl. Nighttime would find me at Rose's Cantina, music would play and Felina would whirl. Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina, wicked and evil while casting a spell. My love was deep for this Mexican maiden, I was in love but in vain I could tell.' Eric Clapton.
Song: Tulsa Time. Illustration software free download. from Back from the Edge This is a great road-trip song in any direction, but as it happened, we were moving the same way as the narrator when we played it — 'going to Arizona, maybe on to California.' Here, the man is going west to pursue his career dreams, though his girlfriend seems unimpressed and doesn't come along.
'Well, I left from Oklahoma, riding in a Pontiac, just about to lose my mind. I was going to Arizona, maybe on to California, the people all living so fine. My mom called me crazy, my baby called me lazy, but I'm gonna show 'em all this time. Cause you know I ain't no fool and I don't need no more damn schoolin'. Wanna just walk the line.' Wall Of Voodoo. Song: Mexican Radio.
from Dark Continent/Call Of The West Our party was deeply divided on the merits of this song, in which the narrator seems to be far from the border, listening to the radio stations that have for generations beamed their signals across the U.S. What I can say is that we played the song while rolling over Mexico's incredible Sierra de Juarez mountains; ever since I was a kid, I have remembered absurdist lines like this: 'I wish I was in Tijuana, eating barbequed iguana.'
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